State Library IT Staff

The person w/ the most information is Great (who is not in the meeting)

They interact w/ libraries but they do not go out in the field to discuss connectivity

Barriers

Geology and remoteness of cities, etc.

Financial barriers—funding is an issue

Some still using dial-up

State of broadband

State is at the tail end of technology

Where you are geographically

70% of population in urban—with a lot of competition

Not on the Interstate, not sure if they will be connectivity

Limited providers

Starting to use Verizon Cards in some of the laptops from the state library

Ask telcos what is available

The libraries will call and ask

Vendor as advisor is not a good model

A lot of vapor selling

A lot of talk of what can be done and inability to talk w/ stakeholders

Thinks it’s too bad that state libraries don’t have staff to go and talk w/ libraries

Would be nice to have someone go out and help them

Most libraries don’t have a IT staff of any kind

No one to support libraries locally

Having a mobile force would be best

Not necessarily just for libraries—form a cooperative with other people

But some agencies may not want to have outsiders working w/ their computers

Difficulty in passing libraries bonds

Idaho is stingy—doesn’t realize you need to spend money to make money

Solutions & Problems

Economic Development for the whole state

Don’t want to create a technology welfare state

Have IT structure in place over time

Teach them to fix their own computers

Push to have technology level @ consortium level

One solution is that if the library set up a tower, they could get broadband

Stressing that libraries could be the place of access

Have positive light for libraries

One thing Idaho does well is promoting the value of libraries

B & M Gates Interventions

Marketing—Increase advocacy and doesn’t realize the value of libraries

Need to change perception of libraries—Not books, but access to information & technology

If no broadband, shows value and grassroots activities

Create & show demand

Education of librarians

Not just librarians, but educating the public as to the value of the library

Targeting kids w/ education of the libraries; shows value

Mobile Tech support & Training people

Lots of turnover

IDANET

A good system, but drawback is that there are several points of contact to get set-up

Definitely useful for offices of an entity

Department of Administration

Keith is the director of the department of administration. He is the chairmen of the technology council. Basically, he is the state CIO (ITMRC is reportable to him). Has a relationship with many telecommunications companies. Keith was the elected state controller and just started as the director of the admin.

Broadband

Within metro areas it’s pretty good

In rural areas, it has quite a way to go (it’s a challenge to get them into their communities)

Factors of Success

Motivation and market demand

Economic development associated with broadband

Legislature sees the need to improve access

Telcos that is responsible wants to do it, but it must be economically viable

Strong High-tech component in Idaho to drive innovation

Well-trained workforce to deploy these resources

Barriers

Geographic

Mountains

Large state

Many miles between citites

Makes it difficult to get technology in place

Lots of small communities

Easy to deploy in flat areas, but difficult in others

Success

Scale of 1-10 5 or 7

Vision

Not been a strong cohesive strategy @ the state level

Multiple and competing visions

Those w/ vision need to work together

Going to require state Government (through the governor) to bring competing interests together

Military, state agencies

Governor has an indirect approach…concerned and has other people looking into it

To drive education and economic development

What steps has government taken?

Former Governor created a couple of councils to meet and tasked with the mission

Wants to elevate the position of these councils b/c they have been buried far down into

ITRMC wants to be increase their influence and have federated CIO

Previous programs

Tax incentives and matching grants need to be addressed on a case by case basis

Sees some matching grants coming up in the future

Where do libraries fit in?

They are a critical component of a consumer’s access to information

Government is not a replacement to what private sector can do

Thinks people will be reluctant to go to library (compares it to public transportation)

Libraries may be a place

Certain demand out there for libraries, but demand comes in personal access to information

Would not be underutilized at the library

IDANET

Has the potential of being a large player

Lack of coordinated effort by the agency levels to maximize the potential

Needs to make choices as to how we will allocate resources

Department of Administration negotiates the contracts and billing

ITD Network

Some talks with the merging of the two merger

Wants to push for the discussion of the Issue

ITMRC

Technically responsible for setting standards

Operating in a decentralized stove piped fashion

That means they are not taking adv. Of enterprise IT planning and resources

Individual email servers (80) duplicated throughout the agencies

Getting agencies to understand how they can save money is a political reason

B & M Gates interventions

Enormous amount of credibility associated w/ Bill Gates

Well received in Idaho

Would like recommendations on how other states are getting stuff done

Would recommend input

Level of education that needs to take place inside and outside of government

Positive and negative benefits of broadband

Continue to work w/ councils and policy makers on deployment

All competing for $$$ to provide capacity

Anything we can do to increase resources

Grants and Incentives Programs

Syringa Networks

About

Owned by 12 rural and independent telcos

Built network to have independence from Qwest

Built fiber network that covers Southern Idaho

Competes w/ Qwest to provide high speed service

Brought in advanced services where they weren’t available before

Reduced the backhaul costs

Middle mile provider

Brought capacity to the small companies

Owners, suppliers and customers are the same people

In some cases Qwest didn’t want to upgrade their facilities

A wholesale ISP to the smaller companies

Deploys DSL faster then Qwest in rural towns

Take rate is pretty high

No USF money, no regulation

Sell retail to businesses (will sell frame relay, ATM or Ethernet)

About 22 other networks (indatelgroup.org)

Has fiber to the Internet2 and NLR POP in Boise (leases some fiber from Level3)

$5 million from state

Enhancing their services instead of bringing to un-served areas

Tax incentive (Broadband Tax-incentive Credit)

Passed in 2001-2002

Some say that it was passed to help Syringa get their network built

About 3% of investment in equipment & fiber is tax credit

Helped build the network

Idaho telcos (rural and large) lobbied heavily to get the bill passed

Any investment is written

Has to be equipment and fiber and that it is used to deliver broadband

What should be done to increase broadband?

If the state would just get its act together, they could save a lot of money and bring economies of state

Volunteered to bring 100 Mb of connectivity, but no one took advantage of it (intrastate connectivity only)

Signs that state may get things going again

Need to stop calling it IDANET (too much political baggage associated with it)

Universities are nervous about cooperating with the state agencies

If higher ed, k12 and state agencies (only would mention libraries and health after prompted

Bills

Qwest got a bill for de-regulation

Smaller companies didn’t try and block with a tentative re-write of the telcos